Free Republic

Thread for discussion of tonight's VA Gov Elecitons Result. Is this too early?

Insurers say the early buyers of health coverage on the nation's troubled new websites are older than expected so far, raising early concerns about the economics of the insurance marketplaces. If the trend continues, an older, more expensive set of customers could drive up prices for everyone, the insurers say, by forcing them to spread their costs around. "We need a broad range of people to make this work, and we're not seeing that right now," said Heather Thiltgen of Medical Mutual of Ohio, the state's largest insurer by individual customers. "We're seeing the population skewing older." The early numbers,...

Finally, a Supreme Court case that can keep my attention: NPR reports that today the highest court in the land hears the 2005 case of Philadelphia suburbanite Carol Anne Bond, who discovered that her husband had impregnated her best friend, and then attempted to poison said best friend. Bond was subsequently convicted under a chemical weapons treaty. Using chemicals stolen from the chemical manufacturing company where she worked, Bond mixed a compound that can be lethal in small amounts — and is bright orange in color — and put it in her ex-BFF’s mail. The mistress easily noticed the powder...

Could Virginia Start Forcing MD's to Accept Medicare & Medicaid Patients? by Kerry Picket 3 Nov 2013 Kathleen Murphy, a Democrat who is running for the House of Delegates against Republican incumbent Barbara Comstock, told a forum in Great Falls on Saturday that doctors should be forced to accept Medicare and Medicaid patients: FYI last night at the Great Falls Grange debate, Democrat delegate candidate Kathleen Murphy said that since many doctors are not accepting medicaid and medicare patients, she advocates making it a legal requirement for those people to be accepted.....

FULL TITLE: Police release heartbreaking 911 call by man attacked by stepson, 16, before teen 'brutally murdered his own mother because the couple confiscated his cellphone' In a new development on the case of a 16-year-old boy charged with beating his mother to death, the dramatic 911 phone call the boy's stepfather placed to police has been released, with the man not knowing at the time his wife was already dead. The stepfather, who has not been identified, is trying to compose himself while talking to the operator, after fleeing the scene when his stepson repeatedly attacked him with a...

<p>A web video is offering clear and embarrassing proof that, contrary to President Obama’s latest claims, he promised people repeatedly that they could keep their health-insurance plan if they liked it.</p> <p>In the president’s latest attempt to walk back his pledge, Mr. Obama told supporters Monday night in Washington that his oft-stated promise about people keeping their insurance included an important caveat about health plans being grandfathered under the law.</p>

Not long ago, Barack Obama gave a highly publicized speech in which he disparaged bloggers as a class of people who, along with lobbyists and talk-radio hosts, ought to be ignored. Just what Obama holds against bloggers was never entirely clear, especially since he is known to occasionally meet with us (or so I have read). Today, Obama has a blog item of his own in the Huffington Post, urging Congress to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. A consideration of its polemical merits makes clear the source of his mysterious resentment of bloggers: rank envy. What’s noteworthy about Obama’s blog...

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a radical left supposed justice-based organization, the Los Angeles International Airport shooter sprang from homophobic hatred for the Transportation Security Administration. The notion that homophobia lies at the root of anti-TSA sentiment is beyond asinine, but the SPLC is the same group that labeled the Family Research Council a “hate group,” leading Floyd Lee Corkins to shoot a security guard in the FRC headquarters.

General Motors had another disappointing month of sales for its much-hyped green wonder-car in October. Sales for the Chevy Volt plunged over 31 percent from last year, down to 2,022 units for the month. To put that number in perspective, Toyota sells that many Toyota Camrys in about two days. Or, GM is selling less than one Volt per Chevy dealership per month. Despite the dismal sales figures, the loss to taxpayers for federal tax credits of $7,500 per vehicle that go to the wealthy buyers of Volts tallies out to $15,165,000 in October. If GM had come anywhere close...

full title....CBS News: White House Granted Itself Waiver To Launch Obamacare Website ‘Deemed As High Security Risk’A memo the Obama administration turned over to the House Oversight Committee revealed that the White House granted itself a waiver to launch the faulty HealthCare.gov website with “a level of uncertainty.” The waiver was granted four days before the Oct. 1 launch of the Obamacare website, even though it was “deemed as a high (security) risk,” according to CBS News. CBS News reports tests to secure customer information privacy on the federal health exchange website fell behind schedule, with a required top-to-bottom security...

Last week, the Obamacare war room detected a twist in the national narrative that concerned them. The media’s obsessive focus on the failed website launch was beginning to give way to stories about individuals who found higher-than-expected prices on the exchanges. A memo instructed participants to prepare for such “media inquiries”: “The media attention will follow individuals to plan selection and their ultimate choices; and, in some cases, there will be fewer options than would be desired to promote consumer choice and an ideal shopping experience,” warned the memo. “Additionally, in some cases there will be relatively high-cost plans.” CNN’s...

It isn't much, but at least it's something. Senate Bill 612, sponsored by Sen. Hoon-Yung Hopgood, D-Taylor, would "reduce from 2,000 hours to the 1,800 hours the number of hours of instruction at a ‘licensed barber college’ that an individual must accumulate before he or she is allowed by the state to earn a living at this trade." The state requires 2,000 hours of education in a "barber college" to work, compared to only 1,200 hours of education to be a lawyer. According to the Institute for Justice (IJ), which monitors licensing in every state, Michigan’s mandate is among the...

Straight. Down. To. You know where...

President Obama didn't have any predictions to share about Tuesday's elections, even as two of his high-profile endorsees appear headed for big wins. "Never predict elections," Obama told reporters covering a meeting with CEOs on immigration reform. "That's a losing proposition -- better to predict the World Series than elections."

WASHINGTON, D.C., November 5, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – According to recent polls, pro-life stalwart Ken Cuccinelli is within striking distance of Planned Parenthood-backed rival Terry McAuliffe in today’s Virginia gubernatorial race, despite being massively outspent and out-fundraised. According to the most recent figures, while Cuccinelli managed to raise some $20 million during the race, Democrat Terry McAuliffe has raised $34 million, or 70% more than Cuccinelli, while McAuliffe has outgunned Cuccinelli on TV airtime by a whopping 10-1. Favorites of the Democratic Party have come out in force in support of McAuliffe, including the SEIU, NARAL, Planned Parenthood, the National Education...

Chinese professor Chi Nan has built her own Li-Fi wireless system that can use LED lights to send and receive Internet data. "I bought the lights from Taobao," she said, referring to the Chinese e-commerce site. The professor from Fudan University showed off the technology on Tuesday at the China International Industry Fair in Shanghai. Unlike traditional Wi-Fi routers that use radio signals, Chi's system relies on light to send and receive data wirelessly. Others scientists, especially in the U.K., have also been researching the technology, and dubbed it "Li-Fi". But rather than develop specialized hardware, Chi bought off-the-shelf retail...

Eckert's attorney, Shannon Kennedy, said in an interview with KOB that after law enforcement asked him to step out of the vehicle, he appeared to be clenching his buttocks. Law enforcement thought that was probable cause to suspect that Eckert was hiding narcotics in his anal cavity. While officers detained Eckert, they secured a search warrant from a judge that allowed for an anal cavity search.

The Guy Fawkes story, the Gunpowder Plot and the history of Bonfire Night linked to Hatfield House. The current Marquess of Salisbury, who lives at Hatfield House, is a direct descendant of the man who uncovered the plot to kill King James I. He is the great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great (11 times) grandson of the gnarled monarch’s Machiavellian Secretary of State, Robert Cecil. And Lord Salisbury’s ancestral seat at Hatfield House was also swapped for the original Cecil home at Theobalds, in Waltham Cross. Cecil was one of the chief architects of Scottish...

A major Democratic Party benefactor and Obama campaign bundler helped pay for professional petition circulators responsible for getting Virginia Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Robert C. Sarvis on the ballot — a move that could split conservative votes in a tight race. Campaign finance records show the Libertarian Booster PAC has made the largest independent contribution to Sarvis’ campaign, helping to pay for professional petition circulators who collected signatures necessary to get Sarvis’ name on Tuesday’s statewide ballot. Austin, Texas, software billionaire Joe Liemandt is the Libertarian Booster PAC’s major benefactor. He’s also a top bundler for President Barack Obama. This revelation...